Battle Color Detachment entertains audience at MCLB Albany | VIDEOS | PHOTO GALLERY

MCLB-ALBANY — The Battle Color Detachment at 8th & I wowed a Southwest Georgia audience Friday morning with its annual ceremony held aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany.

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The Marines of 8th & I came in for the Marine Corps Battle Color ceremony in Albany. Comprised of three performing ceremonial units from Marine Barracks Washington, D.C. including the Marine Corps Color Guard, the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon and the Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps, the Battle Color Detachment travels and performs for hundreds of thousands of spectators annually.

Mobile users can view the Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps and hear what it takes to be a part of the group by clicking here.

Traditionally known as “The Commandant’s Own,” the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps is comprised of 85 Marines recruited from various civilian drum corps, marching bands and other musical units within the Marine Corps. The unit combines contemporary songs and traditional marching music with uniquely choreographed drill movements in a program entitled “Music in Motion.”

Click here to see the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon’s performance.

The program included some pieces such as “To Tame the Perilous Skies” by David Holsinger, “New World Symphony” by Antonin Dvorak before concluding with a rendition of “Stars and Strips Forever.” The unit performs 400 ceremonies annually, for which they travel tens of thousands of miles.

Among those in the unit is Gunnery Sgt. Keith Satonica from Tifton, who plays in the percussion section. His family members were among those in the audience on Friday, with whom he was hoping to spend time with before heading out today.

“This is the performance I look forward to all year,” he said.

Rehearsals usually run from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. with meal breaks. Material heard at a performance comes from hours of practice, and there are dozens of pieces of music the corps plays.

Aside from occasionally banging his frustration out on drums, traveling is one of the bigger perks of the job, Satonica said.

“I’ve been to Scotland, Japan, played for the Queen of England and the president of the United States,” he said. “We might be going to France.

“I like to see different places. There are other places I’d like to be.”

Raised as a military brat, Satonica said he always comes into the Albany show thinking about it a little more.

“For a long time, I wanted to be a Marine and a musician,” he said. “I found a way to do both.”

The U.S. Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon, a 24-man rifle platoon that performs a unique precision drill exhibition, also performed. Members of the platoon maneuvered 10-pound rifles — with fixed bayonets attached — through movements that were in sync without verbal command, captivating the audience Friday.

The unit first performed in the Sunset Parades of 1948 and received such an overwhelming response that it soon became a regular part of the parades at Marine Barracks Washington, D.C.

The United States Marine Corps Color Guard, which closed out the program, includes four Marines: the color sergeant, the Marine Corps color bearer and the left and right riflemen. The Color Guard includes the National Colors, carried by the Color Sergeant of the Marine Corps, and is the only official battle colors of the Marines.

The battle colors bear the same 50 streamers authorized for the Corps. These streamers represent U.S. and foreign unit awards as well as those periods of service, expeditions and campaigns in which the Marine Corps has participated from the American Revolution onward.